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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>The Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> honors, at present, 56 individuals who were pioneers in the blindness field and shaped the field’s history, philosophy, knowledge, and skills, while providing<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>outstanding service to people who were blind and visually impaired.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Hall of Fame, which belongs to the entire field of blindness, is located within, and is curated by, the <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>American Printing House for the Blind<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> (APH) in Louisville, Kentucky. You can learn more about APH’s long and storied history <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>at the APH website.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In 2013, two accomplished educators were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Dr. Laurence C. Jones and Martha Louise Morrow Foxx were honored for their pioneering<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>work at Mississippi’s Piney Woods Country Life School during the first half of the 20th century. At <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Piney Woods School,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx opened, and held open, a door that had been seen as forever closed to black Americans, including those who were blind.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Laurence C. Jones (1884 – 1975)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Laurence Jones<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Piney Woods School was founded in 1909 by Dr. Jones as a place to provide vocational and academic schooling for poor black children and grandchildren<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>of slaves in the rural Piney Woods area—just south of Jackson, Mississippi. The school started with one 16-year-old student standing at a tree stump; the<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>next day there were two more students.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>As word spread, the school continued to grow. Many students came in mule-drawn wagons, with tuition partially paid in crops and homemade goods. Their families<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>left them at the school with the hope of a better life made possible through education. All students at the school were required to work. They helped to<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>grow food for the school, built and repaired the grounds, or toured in music ensembles. At that time, the motto of the school was “Work is the Mother of<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Contentment.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>1920: Piney Woods Adds Education of Blind Children<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>During the 1920s, Dr. Jones became aware that there was no school to educate black children who were blind. He observed a young blind girl begging on the<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>streets of Vicksburg and a young blind boy, whose sharecropper parents were killed in a fire, was left at the school for him to care for. Never one to<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>turn away a child in need or a challenge, and believing every child deserved an opportunity, Dr. Jones added the education of blind children to the school’s<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>purpose.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Jones authored several books and toured the country tirelessly, inviting national and international dignitaries to visit the campus. He attracted both<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>white and black teachers from around the country to Piney Woods to learn the methods used at the school for the blind. He advocated education that touched<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“the mind, the heart, and the hands.” This credo was evidenced in education for the mind; spiritual growth and service for the heart; and putting the hands<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>to good old-fashioned work.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>1950: A New Campus and Integration<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In 1945, after visiting the school and learning of the work of Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Helen Keller<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> helped convince the Mississippi legislature to fund the establishment of a new campus in Jackson. After receiving state funding, the Piney Woods School<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>moved to Jackson in 1951 and became the Mississippi School for Blind Negroes, a sister school of the Mississippi School for the Blind. The combined work<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>of Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx was further recognized when the two schools merged in 1974.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Helen Keller at Piney Woods<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Helen Keller visits the Piney Woods School in 1945.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx are in the first row, far right.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Legacy of Dr. Jones<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“Dr. Jones should be noted and recognized for his work in the field of blindness… Dr. Jones was the first spark that initiated a fireball of interest and<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>support to educate all children, including those of former slaves and those who were blind. This leader dared to educate the excluded. This leader dared<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>to include a department to educate the blind which was far different from the expectations during that time. His leadership and professional practice are<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>unsurpassed.” ~Dr. Rosie L.T. Pridgen, Superintendent, Mississippi School for the Blind<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Martha Louise Morrow Foxx (1902 – 1975)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Martha Foxx<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Mrs. Foxx was the primary teacher of the blind at the Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi from 1929 until 1942. She then became principal until<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>1951, when the school moved to a new campus in Jackson, becoming the Mississippi School for Blind Negroes, where she served as director until her retirement<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>in 1969.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Martha Louise Foxx began her journey in the Piney Woods as an 18-year-old graduate of the <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Overbrook School for the Blind.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>She went on to study at several colleges during summers, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>An Innovative Educator<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Mrs. Foxx became widely known for her innovative and dynamic teaching philosophy, which entailed instruction outside the walls of the school. She insisted<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>that students be allowed to enjoy outings into the woods around Piney Woods School to hone their senses of touch, sound, and smell.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Using what were considered to be progressive techniques, she taught students to read <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Braille and large print and insisted that they learn to be self-reliant and develop careers to ensure they could succeed in “making their own” way after graduation.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Teachers, both black and white, from around the country, came to Piney Woods to learn and embrace her methods—all before <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>PL 94-142, IDEA,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>and the Civil Rights movement. Her curriculum was adopted by the “white” school for the blind in the late 1940s.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Legacy of Martha Louise Foxx<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“Challenging minds, expanding possibilities, securing opportunities, and changing what it meant to be blind for African-Americans who happened to be blind<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>– this is what Mrs. Foxx did with her life. She accepted the call, challenged her limits, and impacted lives by making a difference in the dignity and<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>quality of life of hundreds of blind individuals who are now living all across America. Those same individuals are carrying on her legacy not only today,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>but for many years to come.” ~Barbara White Hadnott, former student Additional Information.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The enduring legacies of <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Jones<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> and <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Mrs. Foxx<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> are detailed in the APH Hall of Fame biographies and the 2013 APH Hall of Fame Inductees Announcement, adapted here with permission.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For more information about the life and work of Dr. Jones and Mrs. Foxx, you can read <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Piney Woods School<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> by B.J. LeJeune on the CaptionMax blog. You can also read the expanded biographies of <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dr. Jones<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> and <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Mrs. Foxx<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> on Wikipedia.<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>